V7 Install Problems on 64-bit XP

Jay-Hancock wrote on 9/12/2006, 7:12 AM

Installing V7 on 64-bit XP turned out to be a real challenge, mostly due to Microsoft's .NET 2.0 Framework (which I did not previously have on my system). Thank goodness I had Acronis on my system to rescue me when needed. But if you do it right, Vegas does install just fine on this platform.

Vegas's installer kicks off the install of .NET Framework 2.0. Unfortunately it downloads the 32-bit version (only) which then starts installing and then fails. So I went to the Windows Update site and downloaded the 64-bit version. This failed too. I rebooted my computer. Then I learned that ALL my .NET Framework stuff was corrupted, and my existing Vegas 6 wouldn't run either. Attempts to uninstall/reinstall or repair the .NET framework all failed.

Fortunately I have Acronis on my system, and I had a backup from August 28th. So I restored the system partition and rebooted. Vegas 6 loaded, but when I fired up a project it complained that 5 audio plugins (standard ones that came with Vegas) are not installed properly. So I fired up Acronis again and restored the Vegas 6 folders plus the "common" plugin folders, etc. This got me back to where I was before I started. No problem, just a lot of headaches.

To make a long story short, I DID find a successful way to upgrade to Vegas 7 on my 64-bit system. Here's what I did. This procedure should work for all 64-bit users, but it's also a good idea for 32-bit XP users.

1) Do a full system backup. Best practice is to have your OS on its own partition.

2) Go to Microsoft's download site and download the 64-bit version of the .NET Framework 2.0. Don't install it just yet...

3) Go to Administrative Tools -> Services. Disable the Anti-virus services (don't just stop them, actually disable them). Disable other programs that use .NET (such as the ATI video driver control panel)

4) Reboot. When the system boots, your antivirus will be off.

5) Install the .NET Framework 2.0 that you downloaded (NOT the one that Vegas launches)

6) Reboot. (Your PC might not ask you to do this, but you MUST. In the Windows event log I saw a message saying .NET commanded a restart, but nothing actually happened. So I did it myself)

7) On reboot, your antivirus will still be disabled. That's good. Now you can install Sony Vegas 7 (and Media Manager).

8) SUCCESS!!! Now you can go back to the services and restore the Antivirus programs to "Automatic" instead of "Disabled"

I found that my VSTs and a few other plugins were not working on V7. I probably just need to reinstall them.

Comments

Former user wrote on 9/12/2006, 8:14 AM

Well...considering x64 is not supported and does NOT appear in the System Requirements for V7 - why would you think it would automatically work?

Jay-Hancock wrote on 9/12/2006, 8:58 AM

I never said it should automatically work...

Vegas 6 has worked beautifully on my x64 system. I got better results on this than I ever did on 32 bit XP, mostly due to memory management improvements in the OS.

As well as it worked, possibly the only reasons that Sony would have for not officially supporting it are:
1) additional expense for QA testing with a new OS;
2) x64 requires more user experience with system administration (64-bit drivers!), thus it might be more expensive to support
3) Sound Forge has a 32-bit driver that doesn't install on x64, and lots of users would want to use both software packages (I don't use Sound Forge, so it's not an issue for me)

That said, I am using a trial version of Vegas 7. If it runs as well on x64 as Vegas 6 did, I shall purchase the upgrade. The performance improvements I saw with Vegas 6 on x64 were no small potatoes. It has been rock solid. Where Vegas 6 got "out of memory" errors for a given project on 32-bit XP, it sailed right through on x64. And render times were faster on the most demanding projects, too.

Stuart Robinson wrote on 9/12/2006, 10:07 AM

Jayster,

Thanks for this, really good information. I too run Vegas on x64 and it does indeed benefit greatly from the improved OS and memory management, even if it isn't officially supported.

TheHappyFriar wrote on 9/12/2006, 10:44 AM

i wish there's be official support for 64-bit. Basicly, as of right now, all new CPU's are 64-bit compatible & all future MS os's will be 64 (vista will be 32 also, but after that?).

Maybe if MS made Vista 64-bit only we could actuatly move out of the 32-bit realm. As long as there's a lazy fallback for dev's (ak Vista 32) no one is going to want to take the time to mvoe forward.

Stuart Robinson wrote on 9/12/2006, 5:40 PM

>3) Sound Forge has a 32-bit driver that doesn't install on x64, and lots of users would want to use both software packages (I don't use Sound Forge, so it's not an issue for me)<

For what it's worth, I have the trial of SoundForge running on my x64 machine with no bother whatsoever. I'll have to check to see if it's running in 32-bit mode, but either way it's been fine so far.

Jay-Hancock wrote on 9/12/2006, 7:06 PM

Really? I had heard (via this forum) that the ASIO driver in SF doesn't work on 64-bit. Maybe it's not true? Or maybe you haven't tried the ASIO driver (which you wouldn't unless you had a sound card that supports it).

BTW, all 32 bit programs run in 32 bit mode. They show up in the processes listing in Task Manager with a * 32.

Stuart Robinson wrote on 9/12/2006, 8:57 PM

>Really? I had heard (via this forum) that the ASIO driver in SF doesn't work on 64-bit. Maybe it's not true? Or maybe you haven't tried the ASIO driver (which you wouldn't unless you had a sound card that supports it).<

Just been to check and in the audio options I have E-MU ASIO selected (I have an E-Mu 1820M on this system). No playback problems whatsoever, so based on my experience, SoundForge is fine on x64.

quokka wrote on 9/13/2006, 7:02 PM

Just Installed V7 on XP64. Works a treat!!!
Thanks for the advice on .NET.

Vegas really does perform faster on XP64 from what I see in front of me.
4GB RAM may be what does it.

Cliff Etzel wrote on 9/13/2006, 7:30 PM

I have Vegas 6 installed and it is blazingly fast compared to Ppro 1.5...

Has me reconsidering now my position on Adobe's products. Encodes take forever and Vegas seems to actually have sped up since moving to x64 XP Pro. I have an AMD 3800+ x2 AM2 with 4GB RAM and she none of my SONY apps complain with oddball errors...

I can't wait til Vegas is native 64 bit...

DataMeister wrote on 9/15/2006, 6:53 PM

That's what I was hoping for V7. Preferably to have a universal binary for both. Why is it that the larger a company the less likely they are to support new ideas.

Take Adobe. They don't plan to offer a 64 bit version of anything until, well who knows when. Even the Intel Macs which will have been around for 12 months when Adobe gets around to Photoshop cs3. Yet Adobe has the financial resources to be one of the first out the gate. At least with their flagship application.

Then you look at Maxon Cinema 4D, Syntheyes 2006, Cakewalk. All of these guys who's primary income revolves around one major product have a 64 bit version out the same quarter as WinXP x64 hit the sales channels.

I imagine the old Sonic Foundry would have likely had a 64bit version of Vegas 6.0 out last year as a BETA for 32bit owners to play around with. But no, not with Sony. They must be too big to be cutting edge anymore.

fldave wrote on 9/15/2006, 7:02 PM

64bit totally depends on a) what language the product was written in originally and b) when Microsoft releases the APIs to third party vendors.

If Vegas was written in Delphi, kiss 64-bit goodbye. If C++, it will take a few years to port. If VB, .net (unlikely), then they are probably working on it.